Another Lebanese depositor to become a hero for storming his bank to get his own money

A Lebanese depositor broke into BML bank (Bank Misr-Liban) in Beirut on Monday to demand his trapped savings.

After storming the bank, Omar al-Awar held the branch manager Jad Abu Shdeed , hostage until he received his entire savings of $6500.

In a video he took of himself inside the bank holding the manager hostage, al-Awar said he will not leave before receiving his savings, even if he’d get himself killed, threatening with a bottle of flammable liquid.

The Depositors Outcry association said the depositor left the bank with all his savings of $6500, and is now in the Bachoura police station, asking depositors to support him.

Bank heists in Lebanon have become a growing trend – but these armed “robbers” storming into banks are not stealing anyone else’s money. They are just demanding access to their own savings.

And instead of being prosecuted, the perpetrators have largely been allowed to remain free and have become folk heroes.

The incidents have become increasingly common as Lebanon’s economic crisis continues. The local currency, the Lebanese pound, has depreciated by more than 98 percent against the United States dollar on the black market, while the government’s restrictions on how much money people can withdraw from their own bank accounts have also exacerbated the situation.

Lebanon has been reeling from a worsening economic meltdown since 2019, plunging 80 percent of its population – about three million people below poverty line ,according to the United Nations.

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المودع عمر الأعور من داخل بنك مصر ولبنان يحتجز مدير الفرع جاد بو شديد رهينة pic.twitter.com/W2TJA8PZ6R

— جمعية صرخة المودعين (@sarkhitmoudiin) July 10, 2023